Golf: Woods and Daly lead star-studded field

Bay Hill is supposed to be a major warm-up, not a major tournament.

A month before The Masters, a handful of the world’s best players, including Tiger Woods, today put themselves in contention during the first round of the Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando.

Seeking his third straight win at the event, hosted by Arnold Palmer, Woods shot a five-under-par 67 and is tied at the top of the leaderboard with five others, including John Daly.

Among the elite players in the world, Woods has plenty of company as Sergio Garcia of Spain, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh of Fiji, South Africans Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, and David Duval are all within four shots.

Tied with Woods and Daly for the lead are Angel Cabrera of Argentina, John Huston, Steve Flesch and DA Weibring.

World number one Woods was followed by hordes of fans but Daly, whose long history and longer drives make him a crowd favourite, also had a huge gallery.

‘‘It was kind of cool because the gallery kind of watched both of us, both groups all day,’’ said Daly, who has not won a tournament since the 1995 Open.

Woods is winless since the NEC Invitational last August but hopes to end his slump this weekend.

He missed half of the greens in his opening round but ended up with a bogey-free round.

‘‘It was nice to hit some good, solid putts that seemed to go in,’’ said Woods, who next month aims to defend his Masters title.

‘‘Like I said, I hit the ball really well. When I made a mistake, my short game bailed me out,’’ he added.

Woods birdied four of the first six holes at the Bay Hill Golf Club before spluttering on the back nine.

He made a 12ft putt at the second hole, a seven-footer at the fourth and an 18-footer at the fifth before tapping in on the sixth.

Although he putted a few times from the fringe, Woods needed only 21 official putts during the round, having little trouble with firm greens that were reshaped for this year’s event.

‘‘I’ve always liked greens when they are more firm,’’ he said. ‘‘I think it’s more of a challenge and it favours guys who, obviously, hit the ball high.

‘‘And on top of that, I like seeing the ball move on the greens a little bit, instead of just backing up.’’

Daly has already had a pair of top-five finishes this season after totalling only two the previous three years.

A double Major winner, Daly played his first 12 holes in five under before bogeying the 13th and 14th.

But he eagled the par-five 16th and finished with two pars to share the lead.

Daly played the round with good friend Greg Norman and Kirk Triplett.